Hyderabad: BJP seeks transfer of Siddipet Collector Venkat Ram Reddy

Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party State unit on Monday sought the intervention of the Election Commission of India for the transfer of Siddipet District Collector. Party MLC N Ramchander Rao along with the election cell in-charge of the party, Anthony Reddy, met the State Chief Electoral Officer and said that the ECI had notified the bye-election for the Dubbaka Assembly constituency.

However, the present district collector Venkat Ram Reddy has been working as the district collector of Siddipet since 2014. BJP leader said that Chief Minister and Finance Minister were also from the Siddipet District. Since the district collector was working in the same district for more than six years, "it appears the district collector is hand in glove with the Chief Minister and Finance Minister."

They expressed fears that there was a chance of the official supporting the TRS and might influence other election officers to support the ruling party and its candidate. Against this backdrop, they sought the EC to transfer the official during the present election, for conducting free and fair polls.

That apart, they highlighted that the ruling party has violated the model code of conduct. The TRS party logo colour has been painted on government buildings, government properties, welfare schemes like double bedroom houses, bus shelters, gram panchayat buildings, Anganwadi centres, trees, electric poles etc. in Dubbaka Assembly constituency, they pointed out.

The BJP leaders said that innocent, illiterate voters might get affected. They reminded in the representation submitted to the election official, that according to a Supreme Court judgement that any colour which is similar to the flag of any political party should not be used for painting the gram panchayat buildings.

Following this, they asked the Election Commission to take appropriate action immediately to remove the TRS party colours on government buildings, government properties and various welfare schemes under 261 polling booths in Siddipet district and Dubbaka assembly constituency.

Further, they also alleged that the Finance Minister T Harish Rao had deposited Rs 7.40 crore in farmers' accounts on October 1, against the Model Code of Conduct, which was reported in anewspaper.